Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. He grew up to be a poet, a story writer, and a literary critique. He is considered today as the father of the detective novel because of the intrigue and the mystery that he induced in his works.
It was Edgar who pioneered this genre in the modern era. His horror stories and morbid, to say the least, and no one equaled him. In 1845, he published the Raven, and it is still acclaimed today as one of his most popular poems.
The Early LifeEdgar has a specific and unique method in keeping his audience hooked to his stories. He was by no question a highly talented writer, and his works were nothing short of revolutionary in his period.
He pioneered what was later known as the detective genre, and in his passing, his life also became a combination of mystery and reality. Some things about him were not fully known, and this left expert baffled as to what is real and what is not.
Both of his parents were actors but he was never close to them. He was abandoned, and his mother passed away when he was just three. He lived with his relatives in Virginia, with John and Frances Allan, and this set-up separated him from his siblings. He had a brother and a sister. John, his uncle, was a tobacco merchant. They never got along well because Poe preferred poetry to business. However, he was close to Frances. Over the years, they formed a tight bond.
Edgar had financial problems. He went to the University of Virginia in 1826, but his uncle was not capable of sending him enough money to live by. The cost of schooling was expensive, and Edgar had to find a means to supplement his financial needs. As a result, he resorted to gambling. Instead of earning more money, he ended up amassing debts.
He went back home and had to receive the bad news that the woman he loved and was engaged to, Elmira Royster, decided to live her life with someone else. This was tragic for Poe, and this caused him to leave his relatives.
The Beginning of His CareerIt was in 1827 when he published Tamerlane and Other Poems. It also during this year when he joined the army. He was thinking that in the military academy, he can have a shot at joining West Point, which he did in 1830.
Before going, he published another collection of poetry called Al Asraaf, Tamberlane, and Minor Poems. When he reached West Point, he did well in his classes but did not perform well with his duties. He was kicked out after one year in the military academy.
There are some people who believe that he was court-martialed. It was during this period that he and John had a falling out and John decided to disown him.
It was this incident that made Poe put all his effort into writing. He moved quite a bit around Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Richmond. He also lived with his Aunt Maria Clem between 1831 and 1845. This was when he met his cousin Virginia, and she inspired Edgar to be a master of literature. It was in 1835 when he married his 13-year old cousin.
He became a ruthless critique when he was working at the Southern Literary Messenger, which was a magazine publisher based in Richmond. His other published works first came out in the same publication, and these included The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
He only worked here for two years. His relationship with some of his colleagues was strained because he was combative. He also had an aggressive writing style.
Many people attributed this behavior to his alcohol issues, and that alcohol was one of the reasons why he left the publication. After this stint, he worked at two more publishing houses, the Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and the Broadway Journal.
The Major Works of Edgar Allan PoeIn 1830, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published. It was a collection of short stories, and it included the following:
It was in 1843 when he won a literary prize for his story The Gold-Bug. It was a suspense thriller about treasure hunting and cryptography.
The Raven was published in 1845. It became a literary sensation, and it still is to this day. In this poem, Edgar explored the themes of pain, loss, and death, which were things that happened in his life.
It was in the same year that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow criticized his work. People say that Henry was merely retaliating because Edgar once claimed that one of his works was plagiarized.
Poe continued to explore other writing styles, including his own prose. And he published this search through various works as shown below.
Virginia died in 1847. This devastated Edgar, and it destroyed him He struggled to write, and he also struggled financially. He was in bad health, and he left Richmond on September 27, 1849. People say that he was supposed to go to Philadelphia.
A month later on October 3, he was delirious and was found in Baltimore. It was on a hospital bed where he passed away four days later on October 7.
Historians believe that the cause of his death was brain congestion. His death is a mysterious one, causing a lot of conjectures about the real cause of his demise. Some speculate that alcohol played a role in it.
Others say that it was something else.
The official records from the hospital were long gone. There were no copies of it to prove and close the issue permanently. Some people today believe that he died because of epilepsy. Some say it was rabies while others believe that it was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
When he died, Rufus Griswold, his literary foe, damaged his reputation by saying the Poe was a mentally deranged womanizer. He claimed that Edgar was a drunk. Ironically, it was Griswold who first wrote Poe's biography even if they were enemies.
The Legacy of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar never saw financial success in his lifetime. But today, he is one of America's long-lasting and most influential writers. His works are revered and adored by many, despite more than a hundred years after his death.
Poetry Fiction